[GeeTwo]

We bagged "Peabody" about 45 minutes ago at 107.2 lb. We have an H-drive, and were worried about the CoG. We initially mounted the strafe wheel based on our week one SWAG of the final CoG. Our strafing didn't show any noticeable rotation, so we figured we were close. Weighing of the four corners shows that we missed by about 3/4". We didn't bother moving the wheel back.

We did pull about 10# of gear, mostly the front fork assembly, excluding the lift plate. This assembly has 20 spring-loaded bolts, 6 limit switches, a flipper/holder "plow", and two rows of RGB LEDs. We weren't happy with our reliability at lifting the totes, so we'll be rebuilding this part before Bayou (week 4). After seeing some of the week 0 reports, we may opt for a fixed (and thinner) grabber than our 10-32's.

This leaves us another 12-13 lb to play with to stay at/under weight, and another 7-8 lb of fabricated spares in our withholding allowance. We may use some of the weight on some bits to help align stacks as we build them, and the rest on ballast to get the COG right, and to increase the weight supported by the strafe wheel, which seems a bit light; the aluminum angle must be flexing more than we thought it would.

The programming team is meeting Monday to work on sensors and automation using "Atlas," which is the first built of our robots. Apart from the bits that were not finished or need rework on them, the two are nearly identical. The biggest difference is that the two fork assemblies are built on different spacings between the vertical risers; this is another reason we pulled the fork assembly.